Mobile Trading and Spread Betting
Mobile trading was once considered a dream and something of the distant future. Well, this has changed! For the last year, there has been plenty of buzz around mobile spread trading in the world of financial spread betting. The small screen size has traditionally always been a limiting factor but the emergence of the iPhone and Android devices with their bigger screen is starting to change this. In the past most traders would have relied exclusively on their laptops and desktop computer for the internet access they needed to check prices and trade, all they need to do today is to reach for their iPhone™ or Android mobile phone.
Overall demand for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets has continued to grow and we can say that mobile phone and smart phones are ubiquitous these days. Most subscribers have an Internet-enabled mobile phone and research shows that this will keep rising. Most of us nowoadays realise that mobile technology is changing the way we work, socialise and learn. The internet, social networking, geolocation – all of these things are altering the way in which we interact with the world around us. And mobile phones are being armed with increasingly sophisticated data functionality as next-generation mobile networks are opening up the opportunities for a variety of mobile data and Internet services. While communication is the primary activity of mobile Internet users, the other activities conducted on them are, research, games, news, general entertainment, shopping and of course trading!
The improved graphic capability, larger screens and faster processors of the new smartphones that are being released permit clients to take full advantage of the
platforms on off – even when away from their home computer. A shift towards mobile trading has long been anticipated by industry leaders but been held back by technological shortcomings. Now companies are starting to see the move happen as the use of smartphones continues to grow and spread betting providers have been looking at expanding the range of mobile betting apps they would offer ahead of this technological consumer shift. With the advancement of technology and the introduction of online and mobile trading platforms, financial spread betting has become a mainstream vehicle for speculating on the financial markets such as indices, foreign exchange and commodity trading. Spread betting customers will soon have the ability to obtain a ‘single view of the trading screen’ across their desktop or remotely on iPod, iPad, Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7.
‘In much a similar way as the internet and Internet Trading Platforms changed the world of spread betting forever, the rise of mobile trading has also triggered a wave of new product innovation within the industry over the last three years, to the huge benefit of retail spread bettors.’ City Index spokesperson
Mobile platforms allow users to trade via their iPhone or iPod touch whilst away from their computers – they are usually light trading versions of a desktop platform so while they might comes with less bells and whistles they still retain much of the core trading functionality. In this respect mobile trading allows traders much more freedom. Dedicated applications are developed by programmers for your phone and are optimised for tapping on the display with your chunky fingers. You can find such apps in the Apple App Store (for the iPhone – which forms part of iTunes) and for your Android phone in the Android Market (now part of Google Play).
For instance the City Trading City Index app permits users to easily check the latest prices and and market movements as well as open and close trades. The trading app also comes with a complete live streaming charting package with the ability to set stop and limit orders, view and amend multiple watchlists, and review your trade and order history – all in the confidence personal information and transactions are safe.
Spreadbetters are thus finding that they can easily find and execute orders or view live prices on the go. And even if you don’t want to trade on the go, mobile spread betting platforms allow you to keep track of your positions, monitor price movements and check charts on the go so you never have to be stuck at a computer screen. So in essence mobile trading platforms allow people to trade whatever they what, whenever they want, wherever they are. This is particularly important in turbulent markets as fast access and execution can make the difference between making a profit or a loss.
Mobile spread trading is becoming increasingly popular and providers are looking into extending their core systems framework into the hand-held area of the spread betting market. Execution speed and access is essential when trading, particularly in volatile markets. For that reason spread betting providers are now ensuring that clients are able to trade wherever they are, whether on the internet, iPad or iPhones. City Index, one spread betting provider that was quick to take advantage of the new technology claim that at least one in every four trades with spread betting broker is now placed via City Trading™, the company’s mobile trading platform – an impressive increase from the 2% of trades mobile platforms contributed just two years ago. Another provider that leads in the mobile field is IG Index which has recently added new mobile trading platforms versions for BlackBerry and Android mobiles.
These days mobile trading has become so mainstream that it has now overtaken the telephone as the second most popular channel for trading. As David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index says – ‘an obvious benefit of mobile trading is the ability to react to market moves wherever you are. As markets have become more global there is the potential for volatility at any time of the day, so it makes sense to have a facility to track markets and react to this.’ Being able to gain access to your trading account whilst on the move can make the difference between a winning bet or a winning one; making it essential that you include a number of trading platform into your strategy.
Looking at the iPad from Apple and Galaxy Tab from Samsung for instance we can see that they come with a bigger display and more powerful processor which is an advantage with tablets, particularly when you are analysing charts or doing research. They also allow for better interaction supporting features such as a ‘swipe’ login, checking charts on the ‘go’ and tapping through it to trade, or dragging a market up and down a watchlist.
Having said this it is important to recognise that mobile trading is simply helping us to adapt to the need to be able to react swiftly to market movements. Mobile and traditional desktops should be regarding as complimenting each other as opposed to competing. It is hard to replicate the full functionality available through desktop access via a mobile app but they do offer a good medium to trade and monitor markets efficiently whilst on the move.
In terms of capacity, mobile apps are now much more sophisticated and support charting and analysis. However, present mobile screens are likely still too small to spend too much time trying to analyse markets but the bigger screen size and resolution of the iPad certainly go a long way to assist here. A good mobile app will not only offer the same range of markets that are available on the web platform but also stability and reliability permitting traders to check and access trades even during the busiest periods.
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In case you had any doubt in your mind, financial spread betting is gambling. When you bet on spreads you place a financial bet on the future value of a stock, share, commodities, currencies and others.
The advantages of betting on financial spreads are as follows:
1. Tax free – Financial spread betting unlike CFD, futures and other financial type of activities, carry no income tax on winnings. This means that you can take home your winnings tax free.
2. Invest without being invested – Unlike regular financial market trading, you don’t have to be invested with the actual market value of the stock or the share. This means you don’t actually own a piece of the pie, but the risk is lower as well.
3. Stop loss – A protection mechanism which intended to protect the gamblers from losing their socks on bad bets. This means that regardless of whether the bet was lost, you will not lose more than you initially invested or other amount you set before you place the bet.
4. Freedom of financial markets – With financial spread betting you are not limited to bet on specific markets, you can bet on any markets offered by the financial spread betting company.
With spread betting you should keep in mind that it’s dangerous. It’s the type of be that uses leverage which means you can make big amounts of money from small investments, but you can also lose big if the bet goes wrong. It’s not as easy as it seems.
The good news is the bet on spreads type of activity is licensed and regulated which means you have some sort of protection from fraud financial spread betting services. In any case we recommend you to read some reviews before you start betting on spreads online you will definitely find some good reviews of places worth betting at.